Memory in Death
Plot Summary Eve Dallas is one tough cop. She's got no problem dealing with a holiday reveler in a red suit who plunges thirty-seven stories and gives new meaning to the term "sidewalk Santa." But when she gets back to the station and Trudy Lombard shows up, it's all Eve can do to hold it together. Instantly, she's plunged back into the past, to the days when she was a vulnerable, traumatized girl - trapped in foster care with the twisted woman who now sits in front of her, smiling. Trudy claims she just wanted to see how Eve was doing. But Eve's husband, Roarke, suspects otherwise - and his suspicions prove correct when Trudy arrives at his office demanding money in exchange for keeping the ugly details of his wife's childhood a secret. Barely restraining himself, Roarke shows her the door - and makes it clear that she'd be wise to get out of New York and never bother him or his wife again. But just a few days later, Trudy's found on the floor of her hotel room, a mess of bruises and blood. A cop to the core, Eve is determined to solve the case, if only for the sake of Trudy's bereaved son. Unfortunately, Eve is not the only one to have suffered at this woman's hands, and she and Roarke will follow a circuitous, dangerous path to find out who turned this victimizer into a victim. ''--The Penguin Group'' Map Please reference the Memory in Death Map for locations or approximate locations of sites listed here. Timeline Story Dates: 19-26 December 2059 Day 1 - 19/12/2059 *Dallas and Peabody investigate the deaths of Max Lawrence (Tubbs) and Leo Jacobs. *Back at the bullpen Dallas is informed by Trueheart that a woman is waiting for her. Trudy Lombard: “Her hair was reddish blond, worn in a cap that apparently exploded into curls. Her skin was very white…her eyes were grass green…mid fifties” *Eve is taken aback. She kicks Trudy out, throws up and hurries home. Roarke finds her in the shower and takes care of her. Then he gets the entire story out of her. Trudy had been Eve’s foster guardian after she killed her father. She hurt Eve psychologically in many ways by making Eve take cold baths and locked her in closets, among other torments, during the time she was in her (Trudy’s) house. *They talk about Christmas and other stuff until Eve falls asleep. *Roarke runs a search for Trudy Lombard and then instructs Summerset to inform him if she tries to contact Eve. Day 2 - 20/12/2059 *Feeling relatively normal Eve heads to work. *Candy Thief Update: Eve retrieves her stash from its new hiding spot outside the window, offers one to Peabody, voices her suspicions about her being the thief and then, after kicking her out, proceeds to hide them again! *In Roarke’s office he is informed by Caro that Trudy has requested a meeting with him. Roarke has her wait for a while, and then brought up. He is polite and acts disinterested until she mentions money (”compensation”) demanding 2 million USD. *He threatens her, she scurries out, terrified! *Back to Eve – Peabody has to head to court to testify as a victim in Celina (from Visions) Sanchez’s case. Dallas accompanies her, McNab meets them there. All goes well much to their relief. *On her way back home, stuck in traffic, she’s hit by the realization that Trudy hunted her down not because she wanted to see her but because she was after “big shiny piles” of Roarke’s money. *Alerts Roarke, only to realise that he had already thought of all this and had dealt with it too. *They fight because Eve thinks it’s her problem to deal with, not his. The argument ends with Eve lashing out at him and then storming out. *He heads to the gym to cool off, she to her office, each cursing the other until Eve comes to her senses and goes to apologise. They talk, (Eve announces her decision to go see Trudy in the West Side Hotel where she is staying on Sunday if she hasn’t left by then), make up (they say sorry in Gaelic here: “ta bron orm”) and have sex. *Focus shifts to Trudy. She hits herself with a sock full of credits over and over again, with thoughts of further blackmail, until she passes out. *Eve and Roarke get dressed for the party as guests arrive. At the party the tension between Eve and Dr Mira over the Icove case is finally dispelled. Day 3 - 21/12/2059 *Dallas sleeps in late. They chat about Christmas presents and then leave for Trudy’s hotel. *They head to Room 415 to see a woman (“curvy, blond, mid twenties”) knocking on the door. She introduces herself as Zana, Trudy’s son Bobby’s wife. Trudy doesn’t seem to be answering so Eve gets the door opened by a hotel maid. *They find Trudy “sprawled on the floor with her nightgown hiked up to her hips and her head resting in a pool of congealed blood”. Zana faints, Bobby (“strong and solid. His hair was the colour of straw, cut short and neat”) emerges from their room. *Eve has a memory flash of a time when Bobby had snuck some food to her when she had been punished. Feeling sorry for him, she tells him about the murder. *Field kit and some uniforms arrive and she begins to look around the room, establishing the cause of death as a fractured skull due to multiple hits to the head. Time of death established as 1:30 in the morning. Morris gets there and is informed that Eve knew the victim. *Dallas questions Bobby and Zana about Trudy’s mood, what they have been doing in New York, and what Trudy has been up to. *Peabody is ordered to run searches on both of them. Morris confirms Eve’s estimation of the time & cause of death and says that the other bruises are more than 24 hours old. *Eve tells Peabody to collect cameras from her house and give them to Feeney to verify that they had no hand in the murder. She requests Roarke for a statement on the meeting he had with Trudy on Friday, they argue, he agrees. Peabody, horribly embarrassed, interviews him. *Dallas studies the official data on Bobby: two years her senior, business graduate, owns L and E Realtors along with one Densil K. Easton; and Zana: also business major who had worked with L&E from its conception. Neither of the two had criminal records. Finally Trudy herself, who had applied for professional motherhood after the birth of her son, moved homes innumerable times and had enough money to travel expensively in spite of having no real job. *She visits the Miras, they exchange gifts. They talk about the case, Trudy and Roarke’s billions. *Home. She has tags Morris for an update, learns that Trudy had been hit by something covered with cloth and had downed some blockers. Discusses this with Roarke; they come to the conclusion that she had hit herself. *Dallas wants to see the recording of Trudy’s time in his office, they argue about it, see eye to eye finally and view the vid. They discuss the option of a partner who had bumped Trudy off. *Over dinner she tells Roarke about how she feels no emotion about Trudy’s death and he says that just this once she should be satisfied with only curiosity to inspire her to find the murderer. *Bobby contacts her, wants to change hotels, she asks Roarke to find him a room. Day 4 - 22/12/2059 *Awakes after a restless night; fixes a date with Roarke on Christmas Eve. *Eve learns that Peabody and McNab had a fight; she gives her gift to them: Roarke’s transport to Scotland and back. *Goes to talk to Bobby. Zana returns from her walk scared, and tells them that Trudy’s murderer grabbed her and made her memorise a number. *Eve and Peabody go to the morgue to get an update from Morris. Eve brings Whitney up to date on the case. *They interview the owner of the studio to which Zana had been taken. *Meet Nadine for lunch. She tells them about her new show, Now. *Eve and Peabody head to the lab to hassle Dickie Berenski and Harvo for more info. *They track down the boutique from where Trudy bought the sock she used to hit herself and question the sales clerk. *Eve works in her office for a while. She has a flashback about her time with Trudy. *She questions Zana once again about Trudy and Bobby, before heading home. *She tells Roarke about her flashback and they discuss the case. *Eve tries to track down all of Trudy’s foster kids and talks to some. Day 5 - 23/12/2059 *Over breakfast Roarke gives Eve the financial data on Trudy that he found. *At Cop Central, Eve assigns various duties to her team. *She goes to Mira for an update, then gets updates from Feeney and Peabody. Tells Baxter to follow the Lombards. *Eve goes to the hotel, talks with Bobby for a bit. Then goes back to Trudy’s room. *Bobby is pushed in front of a cab while he and Zana are out shopping. *Eve questions Zana about the incident. When Bobby regains consciousness, she questions him too. *Meets Roarke for dinner at Sophia's. They discuss the case and Christmas. *Back at home, they run some more searches. Eve thinks Zana is the murderer but she is afraid that her connection to Trudy and Bobby makes her biased. *They decide to take a swim and then turn it for the night. Day 6 - Christmas Eve *She goes to EDD to get an update. Feeney tells Eve that the series of numbers that Zana gave them don't match any account number. She thinks that Zana made up the entire episode. Feeney and Eve discuss the case and various possibilities. *Heads to Dr. Mira's office next, and requests that she (Mira) goes with Eve to the hotel to talk to Zana. They discuss marriage and Zana on the way. *At the hotel, Mira talks to Zana about the week's events. After, she tells Eve that Zana's reactions were very normal. Eve still decides to keep her on the top of her list of suspects. *Eve goes to see Bobby in the hospital. *Heads home for her Christmas date with Roarke. They have sex, then exchange gifts. He gets her a cashmere robe, a magnifying glass, jewelry made from the diamonds from the Forty Seventh Street heist, among other stuff. She gets him an ancient pocket watch, The Universe According to Roarke, and a picture of herself from her academy days. Day 7 - 25/12/2059 *Eve wakes up after a nightmare. She finds Roarke in the game room playing the game she got him. Over breakfast they discuss her nightmare and why Eve thinks that Zana is the murderer. *In his lab, they listen to the recording Baxter made of Bobby and Zana before Bobby met with his accident. Eve comes to the conclusion that Zana pushed Bobby out into the traffic. Day 8 - 26/12/2059 *Eve begins the day by harassing the lab, until they give her evidence in the form of Zana’s fingerprints. *She looks up one of Trudy’s foster kids, Marnie Ralston, who is supposed to have died in a bomb blast at the bar she worked in. However, Marnie’s photo ID matches Zana’s. *Eve heads to Cop Central. She sends Baxter and Trueheart to the hotel to find her more evidence, asks Zana to come into Central to complete some paperwork, and haggles with Reo for a search warrant. *When Zana gets in she takes her to the interview room and begins to go through the timeline. Baxter contacts Eve to tell her that they found a single ticket to Bali under the name of Marnie Zane, along with several things that Trudy had bought, all in Zana’s room. *Eve now hits Zana with all the evidence she has until she gets a confession: **Trudy had treated Zana in the same way as she had Eve: forcing her to take cold showers, locking her up in the dark, etc. Zana eventually ran away but always held a grudge. She kept an eye on Trudy, looking out for an opportunity to take revenge. On the day of the bomb blast she had been ill and a friend who had been covering for her had died in her place. Seizing the opportunity, Zana got an almost new face and a new name and managed to marry Bobby. **Then they had come to New York, mainly so that Trudy could blackmail Roarke and Eve. But when he threw her out, Trudy beat herself up and told Zana that Eve had hit her. Zana found out what Trudy was up to and confronted her. That is when Trudy slapped her; Zana lost her temper and killed her. *Eve goes to the hospital to inform Bobby personally. He is devastated and insists that there must be another explanation. *Eve goes home, upset that an innocent man had been manipulated in such a manner. *Roarke talks her out of it and they decide to grab a “workout” and put the job away for a bit. Memorable Quotes Character List List of Main Characters Appearing in this Book *Eve Dallas *Roarke List of Secondary Characters Appearing in this Book *David Baxter *Ryan Feeney *Mavis Freestone *Nadine Furst *Leonardo *Ian McNab *Charlotte Mira *Delia Peabody *Lawrence Summerset *Troy Trueheart *Jack Whitney List of Recurring Characters Appearing in this Book *Dickie Berenski *Crack *Galahad *Ursa Harvo *Dennis Mira *Morris *Cher Reo *Anna Whitney List of Minor Characters Appearing in this Book *Roy Chancey *Martin Gant *Maxie Grant *Jayne Hitch *Bobby Lombard *Trudy Lombard *Zana Lombard *Celina Sanchez *Detective Slader *Carly Tween List of Peripheral Characters Appearing in this Book *Officer Bennington *Officer Bilkey *Bull *Mrs. Dillman *Chad Dix *Densil K. Easton *Marita Easton *Sheila Feeney *John Gruber *Leo Jacobs *Max Lawrence *Rosie O'Hara *Marlee Peoples *Leeanne Petrie *Detective Piers *Ron Steiner *Thom Tween Trivia * Eve tells Peabody that she is primary on the "Santa Jumping Out The Window" case. Max "Tubbs" Lawrence is Santa; Leo Jacobs is second victim that Santa falls on. * It's Eve and Roarke's second Christmas together. Other Covers Additional covers here Other Releases Footnotes Memory in Death Category:The Novels